Twisted Tender

THAT must be one of the most random campaigns, especially for a band with such a consistent singles history. mind you, eventually they saw fit to give Get On Your Boot a release. THAT was probably even odder.

Radiohead's Kid A, MGMT's Congratulations...

Now i'm just SO disappointed with Little Boots. How can anyone so brutally set such portentously exotic, dream-like cover arts against such ground level, unambitious tunes? number 23 is the place this deserves.

anyway, ms germanotta, what is it that you're hiding in the red clutch? please do tell us.

REALLY GOOD totally dripping with confidence this should be top 20 on pink vinyl sales alone. :)

errr... are you aware that your main source credits in its home page (as one of its three main stories) Robbie Williams' UFO endorsement as some kind of major happening? now THAT is hard to explain.

Grim, that pun finally gave it away. admit it, you REALLY are Gordon Smart B)

hehe a fair haired steward once told me that the telemetry interference thing was more or less a veil of Maya, meant to cover up the fact that at certain heights it would be impossible for mobile companies to track down (and charge for them) any calls from and towards any provider. given the source this could be either the most accurate, reliable insight on the subject or the most vapid chat up excuse ever. another day, another corporate conspiracy

i can see these flights becoming major attractions on youtube though.

i'm totally in awe with the video. a bit like having the chance to peek at what was happening in the ladies room while in the gentlemens' Mike Skinner was snorting (see Blinded by the lights) actually i wish a mash up clip was made off these two promos i'd say a very respectable number 21 for this. cheers Lily you can play my xbox anytime.

I can't really see how, Aled. Not even Europe has showed any particular understanding of Girls Aloud's complex blend of cheesy 90's euro power house and Bow Wow Wow post punk sensibility. however, it would be interesting to see Polydor promoting that formula (more of that later in this post) I agree that Foundations could have been a sizeable hit in the US, because it came out on the back of the americans flirtation with Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse and Kate Nash just fit in with that kind of neurotic pop persona. again, thinking back at the way Can't get you out of my head became a huge hit on its own strength I just wish record companies took more risk and just not limited themselves to feed the american market with a pre-packaged idea of what should appeal to big america. kylie minogue may be a case, back in 2001 she sounded AND (in that particular promo) looked like an alien to the average US citizen and that didn't stop Fever becoming a huge seller. now wouldn't it be such a thrill if In for the Kill replicated that feat :)

the OCC is well aware that the digital era as we know it is to become an obsolete concept soon. we, the buying public, may not foresee this yet because the market has caught up on downloads only recently. but it is apparent now that formats have a shorter life cycle than before. like the report says, it's gonna take a while, years surely, but the growth of digital downloads is not only bound to reach a plateau, it will inevitably get in reverse mode. so, yeah, when that happens streaming is gonna be more than just an option

New Order Bizarre Love Triangle #56 I mean, honestly, this defies any logic

does it? from what i've heard i would call it more a "career SOS" single. i know that you could probably say the same about Freak like me (as it obviously was a make or break moment) but ...in that case they came to rescue their career and ended up rescuing pop. i don't know, this is okay but it just doesn't have that special something to grab you by the balls. i just wish they went proper dubstep on this.

Yup, it's no circus, it looks more like a 60's club in Soho :)

I really like the artwork. I can't decide whether it's dumb lad rock imagery or pure class, anyway it's a turn on. In fact I wish I could see more naked women on top of drums in pop.

I would like to see more of these erratic projects from publications archives, chronicling key moments in pop culture. a Smash Hits acid house issue anytime soon?

how this totally passed popjustice by. drooling over anything associated with siobhan used to be his day job.

no 47 smash hit :) actually i quite like the video, glad to see that britter is dependingly slutty as ever. AND...you can never do wrong with a horse.

and the rest of us went on with French and Italian(!) Italian? I NEVER imagined that. i mean, we don't even do eurovision anymore. i reckon the only country where it is studied now must be poland. besides, it must be hell to learn... such complex structure

Gee, I just can't believe how Cascada have made a career in this industry out of such a lame karaoke repertoire. I'd root for Man In The Mirror any day, not least because it's the only Michael Jackson song where his world-weary concern sounds remotely affecting (unlike Heal the world or Earth song)

Bizarre re-hash. if people at Zomba found the abysmal Break the Ice a fitter choice for a single than this why bothering now?

entertainment aspect aside, the most depressing thing about the current top 40 is that it mirrors how culturally impoverished the industry and this country have become. the abundance of new entries to the charts did not only result in more vivacious radio/TV shows, to me it also represented a healthy attitude towards musical diversity from the public and the industry people alike. a willingness to take a chance on new acts and new genres, to accidentally and often unvoluntarily nourish the sound of the underground and encourage it to enrich the mainstream. in this regard i can understand who regrets the loss of such uniqueness in the british charts as for decades the uk top 40 has been looked up to in the world as a model and a measure of progress. i wonder what the rest of the world makes of the UK top 40 these days. probably the very idea of the charts has past its sell by date in the current climate, but this is another topic. what should alarm us the most is the ever diminishing offer of new releases per week. ultimately it's already our loss.

Top 5 then. Must admit that In My Arms has a futuristic charm, just as Wow had a PWL sort of simplicity about it, which I equally enjoyed. this of course has Calvin Harris written all over it, in the video she even almost wears the same optical sunglasses that have become his signature look. the spoken parts!!! they actually DO make her sound like Barbarella on valium :) as for Nu-di-ty, daft lyrics aside, i have to say big kudos for being one of the most musically deranged things she has ever committed to record. i wish we had more of this unapologetical kind of fun on X.

big point there. madonna is usually more state of the art than groundbreaking. as for the niche exploiting...it's only half true take the production on Ray Of Light...it is shockingly similar to Dannii Minogue's Girl period, which came out 1 full year earlier. If EVEN dannii had got there, with some hindsight you could assume that the william orbit touch wasnt that up and coming even then. to madonna's credit in retrospect what made ray of light outstanding was not the cheesy euro-tronica/cafe del mar production but the actual songwriting and conviction. not only is 4 Minutes pretty poor in production and non existant in songwriting, madonna's voice has never sounded so lifeless and flat. and that's something that even madonna's guy won't be able to deny in years to come, will he? :)